March 21, 2012

It was my kid sister's birthday, and a perfect reason for me to try out the wild and funky zebra cake that was all over Pinterest. I read many recipes like here and here, and even sat through a couple of youtube videos. Wishing my lil sis a super duper birthday again, here is my take on the zebra cake.

Preheat the oven to 350°.Line a 9-inch spring form cake pan with a circle of parchment paper.Grease/ spray the bottom and sides of the pan with oil/ butter and flour.

In a large bowl, mix together the eggs, milk, vanilla, vegetable oil.In a medium bowl, sieve the dry ingredients.Pour into wet ingredients and whisk to combine.

Divide the batter into two equal parts in two separate bowls. Set aside one of the bowls.

Sift cocoa powder into the other batter and blend until incorporated. If the batter gets thicker, add about tbsp of milk to get runnier consistency.

Pour batter alternately to form concentric circles

Slowly pour 1/3 cup of vanilla batter into the center of the pan and let it spread slightly on its own.Now pour 1/3 cup dark chocolate batter in the center of the vanilla.Notice that the chocolate batter pushes the vanilla batter out, and then gradually spreads creating lovely concentric circles of batter. Repeat this procedure till all batter is poured into the pan.

Just before getting baked

Bake for 35-40 minutes, until the cake is done and a toothpick inserted to the center of the cake comes out clean. I left mine in the oven for a couple minutes longer, so it had a gaping crack on the top :(

Let the cake cool in the pan for 15-20 minutes. Gently flip the cake and peel the parchment paper.Flip back onto a cooling rack and let cool completely. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve.

Fresh out of the oven

P.S. While I usually prefer baking from scratch, box mixes are a great way to experiment. Any white or yellow cake mix would work along with 3 tbsp of dark cocoa and 1/4 tsp salt.

March 20, 2012

After 3 week nights of pasta dinner, my foodie husband wanted to eat something 'nice', which usually means either Chinese fried rice or chicken biryani. Chinese prevailed. I was not in the mood to cut vegetables and make fried rice from scratch. So I decided to use frozen mix vegetables. After a lot of improvising, the outcome was what my husband called 'Chinese Chicken Biryani'. Here it goes.

* Chicken can be substituted by Tofu or Paneer** Egg is optional if making a vegetarian version.PS. Was not sure if this recipe would make it to the blog, so did not click pictures of each stage. :( I hope the description is clear enough.

March 17, 2012

We all have days when we are really tired, looking at the empty refrigerator with no leftovers, not knowing what to cook for our immediate meal but yet restrain from ordering pizza or chinese takeaway to avoid their consequences. On one such day, I digged out quinoa from our pantry and cooked a one course dinner by adding some vegetable cooked the Indian way. It was a quite easy, quick and tasty meal for two!Serves: 2- 3 personsPreparation time: 5 minsCooking time: 20-25 mins mins

March 15, 2012

Methi Thepla is a quintessential Gujarati flatbread made with spices and fenugreek leaves. It is a staple in all Gujarati households, and can be eaten during any meal. The methi can be substituted with minced garlic, grated milk gourd (lauki/doodhi) or even zucchini. I can eat Methi Thepla at anytime of the day, with yogurt or sweet mango pickle or even tea :)Last week, I picked up some wonderfully fresh methi /fenugreek leaves and instantly wanted to make some methi thepla. I knew I was running low on whole wheat flour, and soon realised it was not enough to make the thepla. So I added some Bajra/ millet flour instead to make Ghau- Bajra na Thepla.Here goes the recipe.

In a large mixing bowl, mix the flours, turmeric powder, chilli powber, salt, sesame seeds together. Add 2 tbsp cooking oil and bit of the yogurt at a time, mixing to blend them together and form a lose dough.

When the ingredients have all come together, add the fenugreek leaves and knead into medium-soft, smooth dough. Set dough aside for 20-30 minutes to rest.

Divide the dough into small 1 inch ball sized portions.

Roll into 5-6 inch diameter thin diskettes. Use flour to help rolling, if the dough sticks to the rolling board.

Golden brown Thepla

Heat a griddle on high and fry the theplas one at a time. Place one rolled diskette on the griddle. Flip when tiny bubbles rise on the top surface. As soon as the first flip is done, baste a little bit of the cooking oiland spread well over the surface. Flip again in 30 seconds and baste. The Thepla is done when both sides are crispy and golden brown.

Serve with chilled yogurt and Chhunda(Sweet mango pickle) or your favoritepickle or chutney

Some of us do not need any
reason to celebrate … It comes way too naturally ;) This time, however, it was a very special
one as we were spending Ronny’s (Hetal’s better half)milestone birthday in Amherst! A celebration together in
our favorite town after a long time… It also happened to be another close friend’s
birthday. Needless to say, we pounced upon the opportunity to bake a cake. Hetal’s cousin had baked a red velvet cake for her daughter’s
first birthday and of course it was exactly what we were looking for - ‘Tried,
tested and tasted to be the best of its kind'! We followed the recipe almost entirely, except that we added more cocoa powder. It made the red colour darker, almost a shade of maroon.

Preheat the oven to 350
degrees F. Lightly oil and flour 3 (9 by 1 1/2-inch round) cake pans. We used a disposable pan set. Its easier to assemble the when all three pans are of the exact same size.

In a large bowl, sift
together the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, andcocoa powder). In another large bowl, whisk
together the oil,buttermilk, eggs,food coloring, vinegar, and vanilla.

Gradually blend the dry ingredients into the
wet ingredients until just combined and a smooth batter is formed.

Divide the cake batter
evenly among the prepared cake pans. We used a cup measure to help measure evenly.

Place the pans in the preheated oven evenly spaced apart. Bake, rotating the pans halfway through the cooking, until the cake pulls away from the side of the pans, and a toothpick inserted in the center of the cakes comes out clean, about 30 minutes. The time we took was exactly 30 minutes, though it may vary with ovens.

Baked cake layers

Remove the cakes from the oven and run a knife around the edges to loosen them from the sides of the pans. One at a time, invert the cakes onto a plate and then re-invert them onto acooling rack, rounded-sides up. Let cool completely.

Frost the cake. Place 1 layer, rounded-side down. Using a palette knife or offsetspatula spread some of the cream cheese frosting over the top of the cake. (Spread enough frosting to make a 1/4 to 1/2-inch layer.) Carefully set another layer on top, rounded-side down, and repeat. Top with the remaining layer and cover the entire cake with the remainingfrosting.

Assembling the cake

Sprinkle the top and/or sides with the pecans.We didn't dry roast the pecans, but would like to do so in the future.

Mix the cream cheese,sugar and butter with a mixer on low speed until
incorporated. Increase the speed to high, and mix until light and fluffy, about
5 minutes.

Reduce the speed of the
mixer to low. Add the vanilla, raise the speed to high and mix briefly until
fluffy (scrape down the bowl occasionally). Store in the refrigerator until
somewhat stiff, before using. May be stored in the refrigerator for 3 days.

March 10, 2012

You never know where and how you find a good recipe. In this case, my niece Khushi wrote this eggless chocolate cake recipe for me on her notebook paper with pencil many many years ago - she was barely 6-7 years old at that time. I'm pretty sure she has long forgotten about it, but I still have that little piece of paper. Here it goes.

March 9, 2012

Trips back home are very hectic, but I get to learn so many new recipes or techniques from Mom, MIL and other relatives. Sabu dana or sago khichdi is one such recipe. I tried it several times, but somehow did'nt get the right consistency or texture. During this trip, I made it a point to keenly observe how my Mom made it. Here it goes.

Wash sabudana carefully in running water. According to my mom, it should wash it atleast 8 times. (Not sure if it works, but why question experience). Soak sabudana in warm water for atleast 3-4 hours. This is an important step. Soak in just enough water to cover the sabudana.Too much water might lead to a mush of starch.

Take a dry pan and dry roast the peanuts on medium low for about 5-6 minutes. This slow roasting enhances the flavour of the peanuts. Once cooled, coarsely crush the peanuts in a grinder.

Heat the oil in a pan and add cumin seeds and bay leaf.

Add potatoes and fry till the potatoes are slightly browned.

Add the soaked sabudana and gently toss with the potatoes.

Add green chillies, ginger, salt, sugar and pepper. Cover and cook for about 10 minutes on medium heat or till the sabudana is cooked. Sabudan turns translucent when cooked. Sprinkle a little water if needed to facilitate the cooking.

Mix the crushed peanuts and sprinkle lemon juice over it.

Garnish with coriander leaves

Serve hot with some plain yogurt. It is a perfect snack or a light meal on a rainy day :)

About us

A blog by two foodies to indulge in our passion for food that makes us happy and everyone around us happier! Hope you enjoy reading and trying out these recipes as much as we enjoy sharing them :)
Ajanta from Amherst & Hetal from Houston